Photo:

Aurélien Comte controls final Zhuzhou race as Cyan Racing secures drivers’ title

By

Aurélien Comte claimed his second FIA TCR World Tour win of the weekend at Zhuzhou, controlling a static final race which was interrupted once by a safety car session, while Cyan Racing secured the drivers’ title.

Thed Björk started the race from pole position and headed the field into Turn 1, only to lose the lead to Comte before the end of the first lap.

Reigning Supercars Champion Will Brown was on a charge early on in the race, making a bold move to pass reigning champion and fellow Hyundai driver Norbert Michelisz by the start of lap three with some contact.

The contact resulted in a loose side panel of Michelisz’s Hyundai which came off later in the race, resulting in a small slide and three lost places for the Hungarian driver who finished the race in eighth.

Brown then attacked Néstor Girolami and got past for fourth on lap five.

The safety car was called into action on lap seven as Ignacio Montenegro came to a halt due to a broken front-right suspension.

Comte pulled a gap immediately as the safety car headed back in as Björk once more made a poor restart.

The BRC Hyundai drivers started to drop positions voluntarily towards the end of the race in order to shed compensation weight ahead of the Macau season finale.

Cupra driver Comte won the race by just over a second over Björk as points leader Yann Ehrlacher withstood hard pressure from Brown to secure the final podium position.

Santiago Urrutia came home in fifth place ahead of Ryan MacMillan who gained several positions during the last lap as the drivers ahead of him tried to let as many drivers past as possible to shed weight.

Girolami finished seventh, Michelisz eighth, Ma Qing Hua ninth and Mikel Azcona tenth.

Estevan Guerrieri of GOAT Racing Honda had another dreadful race to finish 12th, losing one place to Evolve Racing’s Lo Sze Ho on the last lap.

The result means that Gurrieri is out of the drivers’ title fight, trailing the points lead by 101 points with 65 points remaining in the Macau season finale.

Lynk & Co Cyan Racing secured the teams’ title yesterday and the drivers’ title today as Ehrlacher and Björk are the sole drivers in contention for the drivers’ title.

Björk gained slightly on his team-mate in this race as Ehrlacher heads to Macau on November 14-16 with a 34-point lead.